Tuesday 19 May 2020

Honey, I shrunk the database!

For my current assignment I need to get 3 SOA/B2B environments running. I'm going to try-out the multi-hop functionality, where the middle B2B environment should work as a dispatcher. The idea is that in Dev, Test and Pre Prod environments the dev environment can send messages to the remote trading partner's test environment, through the in-between-environment. To the remote trading partner, that in-between-environment should act as the local test environment, but then should be able to dispatch the message to the actual dev, test or pre-prod environment.

I envision  a solution, where this in-between B2B environment should act as this dispatching B2B hop. So I need to have 3 VMs running with their own database (although I could have them share one database), and Fusion Middleware domain.

The Vagrant project that I wrote about earlier this week, creates a database and then provisions all the FMW installations and a domain. That database is a 12cR1 database (that I could upgrade) that is installed default. In my setup it takes about 1.8GB of memory. My laptop is 16GB, so to have 2 VMs running on it, and let Windows have some memory too, I want to have a VM of at most 6,5 GB.
I need to run an AdminServer and a SOAServer, that I gave 1GB and GB respectively. And since they're not Docker containers, they both run an Oracle Linux 7 OS too.

So, one of the main steps is to downsize the database to "very small".

My starting point is an article I wrote years ago about shrinking an 11g database to XE proportions.
As described in that article I created an pfile as follows:
create pfile from spfile;

This creates an initorcl.ora in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs folder.

I copied that file to initorcl.ora.small and editted it:
orcl.__data_transfer_cache_size=0
#orcl.__db_cache_size=1291845632
orcl.__db_cache_size=222298112
#orcl.__java_pool_size=16777216
orcl.__java_pool_size=10M
#orcl.__large_pool_size=33554432
orcl.__large_pool_size=4194304
orcl.__oracle_base='/app/oracle'#ORACLE_BASE set from environment
#orcl.__pga_aggregate_target=620756992
orcl.__pga_aggregate_target=70M
#orcl.__sga_target=1828716544
orcl.__sga_target=210M
#orcl.__shared_io_pool_size=83886080
orcl.__shared_io_pool_size=0
#orcl.__shared_pool_size=385875968
orcl.__shared_pool_size=100M
orcl.__streams_pool_size=0
*.audit_file_dest='/app/oracle/admin/orcl/adump'
*.audit_trail='db'
*.compatible='12.1.0.2.0'
*.control_files='/app/oracle/oradata/orcl/control01.ctl','/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/orcl/control02.ctl'
*.db_block_size=8192
*.db_domain=''
*.db_name='orcl'
*.db_recovery_file_dest='/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area'
*.db_recovery_file_dest_size=4560m
*.diagnostic_dest='/app/oracle'
*.dispatchers='(PROTOCOL=TCP) (SERVICE=orclXDB)'
*.open_cursors=300
*.pga_aggregate_target=578m
*.processes=300
*.remote_login_passwordfile='EXCLUSIVE'
#*.sga_target=1734m
*.sga_target=350M
*.undo_tablespace='UNDOTBS1'

The lines that I changed are copied with the original values commented out. So I downsized the db_cache_size, java_pool, large_pool and pga_aggregate_target. Also the sga_target, shared_io_pool(have it auto-managed) and shared_pool. I needed to set the sga_target to at least 350M, to get it started.
SOASuite needs at least  300 processes and open_cursors.

Now the script, checks if the database running. It is actually a copy of the startDB.sh script also in my Vagrant project.

If it is running, it shutdowns the database. It then creates a pfile for backup. If the database isn't running, it only creates the pfile.

Then it I copied that file to initorcl.ora.small and creates a spfile from it. And then it starts the database again.

#!/bin/bash
SCRIPTPATH=$(dirname $0)
#
. $SCRIPTPATH/../../install_env.sh
. $SCRIPTPATH/db12c_env.sh
#
db_num=`ps -ef|grep pmon |grep -v grep |awk 'END{print NR}'`

if [ $db_num -gt 0 ]
then 
  echo "Database Already RUNNING."
  $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus "/ as sysdba" <<EOF
shutdown immediate;
prompt create new initorcl.ora.
create pfile from spfile;
exit;
EOF
  #
  # With use of a plugable database the following line needs to be added after the startup command
  # startup pluggable database pdborcl; 
  #
  sleep 10
  echo "Database Services Successfully Stopped. "
else
  echo "Database Not yet RUNNING."
  $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus "/ as sysdba" <<EOF
prompt create new initorcl.ora.
create pfile from spfile;
exit;
EOF
  sleep 10
fi
#
echo Copy initorcl.ora.small to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initorcl.ora, with backup to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initorcl.ora.org
mv $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initorcl.ora $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initorcl.ora.org
cp $SCRIPTPATH/initorcl.ora.small $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initorcl.ora
#
echo "Starting Oracle Database again..."
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus "/ as sysdba" <<EOF
create spfile from pfile;
startup;
exit;
EOF

The scripts can be found here.

Oh, by the way: I must state here that I'm not a DBA. I'm not sure if those settings make sense all together. (Should have someone review it). So you should not rely on them for a serious environment. Not even a development one. My motto is that a development environment is a developer's production environment. For me this is to be able to try something out. And to show the mechanism to you.




Friday 15 May 2020

New FMW 12c Vagrant project

Introduction

Several years ago I blogged about automatic creation of Fusion Middleware environments.
See for instance this article on installation, this one on the domain creation and these notes.

In between I wrote several articles on issues I got, start/stop scripts, etc.

Later I found out about Vagrant and since then I worked with that. And this I enhanced through the years, for instance, nowadays I use different provisioners to setup my environment.

Until this week I struggeled with a Oracle Linux 7 Update 7 box, as I wrote earlier this week.

For my current customer I needed to create a few B2B environments. So I got back to my vagrant projects and scripts and build a Vagrant project that can create a SOA/BPM/OSB+B2B environment.

You can find it on GitHub in my ol77_soa12c project, with the scripts in this folder.

You'll need to get a Oracle Linux 7U7 Vagrant base box yourself. I tried to create one based on the simple base box of Oracle, as I wrote earlier this year. But in the end I created a simple base install of OL7U7, with one disk, and a Server with GUI package, a vagrant user (with password vagrant). As you can read in earlier articles.

Also  you'll need to download the installer zips from edelivery.oracle.com.

Modularisation

What I did with my scripts in this revision, is that I split up the main method of the domain creation script:
#
def main():
  try:
    #
    # Section 1: Base Domain + Admin Server
    createBaseDomain()
    #
    # Section 2: Extend FMW Domain with templates
    extendFMWDomain()
    #
    # Section 3: Create Domain Datasources
    createDatasources()
    #
    # Section 4: Create UnixMachines, Clusters and Managed Servers
    createMachinesClustersAndServers()
    #
    # Section 5: Add Servers to ServerGroups.
    addFMWServersToGroups()
    #
    print('Updating the domain.')
    updateDomain()
    print('Closing the domain.')
    closeDomain();
    #
    # Section 6: Create boot properties files.
    createBootPropertiesForServers()
    #
    # Checks
    print('\n7. Checks')
    print(lineSeperator)    
    listServerGroups(domainHome)
    #
    print('\nExiting...')
    exit()
  except NameError, e:
    print 'Apparently properties not set.'
    print "Please check the property: ", sys.exc_info()[0], sys.exc_info()[1]
    usage()
  except:
    apply(traceback.print_exception, sys.exc_info())
    stopEdit('y')
    exit(exitcode=1)

All the secions I moved to several sub-functions. I added an extra section for Checks and validations. One check I added is to list the server groups of the domain servers. But I may envision other validations later.

Policy Manager


Another thing is that in the method addFMWServersToGroups() I changed the script so that it complies to the topology suggestions from the Oracle Product management. Important aspect here is that for SOA, OSB and BAM it is important to determine if you want a domain with only one of these products, or that you create a combined domain. By default these products will have the Oracle Webservice Managment Policy Manager targetted in to the particular cluster or server. However, you should have only one PolicyManager per domain. So, if you want a combined domain with both SOA and OSB, then you would need to create a separate WSM_PM cluster. This is done using the wsmEnabledcproperty in the fmw.properties file. Based on this same property the server groups are added:
#
# Add a FMW server to the appropriate group depending on if a separate WSM PM Cluster is added.
def addFMWServerToGroups(server, svrGrpOnly, srvGrpComb):
  if wsmEnabled == 'true':
    print 'WSM Disabled: add server group(s) '+",".join(svrGrpOnly)+' to '+server
    setServerGroups(server, svrGrpOnly)
  else:
    print 'WSM Enabled: add server group(s) '+",".join(srvGrpComb)+' to '+server
    setServerGroups(server, srvGrpComb)  
#
# 5. Set Server Groups to the Domain Servers
def addFMWServersToGroups():
  print('\n5. Add Servers to ServerGroups')
  print(lineSeperator)
  cd('/')
  #print 'Add server groups '+adminSvrGrpDesc+ ' to '+adminServerName
  #setServerGroups(adminServerName, adminSvrGrp)     
  if osbEnabled == 'true':
    addFMWServerToGroups(osbSvr1, svrGrpOnly, srvGrpComb)
    if osbSvr2Enabled == 'true': 
      addFMWServerToGroups(osbSvr2, osbSvrOnlyGrp, osbSvrCombGrp)
  if soaEnabled == 'true':
    addFMWServerToGroups(soaSvr1, soaSvrOnlyGrp, soaSvrCombGrp)
    if soaSvr2Enabled == 'true': 
      addFMWServerToGroups(soaSvr2, soaSvrOnlyGrp, soaSvrCombGrp)
  if bamEnabled == 'true':
    addFMWServerToGroups(bamSvr1, bamSvrOnlyGrp, bamSvrCombGrp)
    if bamSvr2Enabled == 'true':  
      addFMWServerToGroups(bamSvr2, bamSvrOnlyGrp, bamSvrCombGrp)
  if wsmEnabled == 'true':
    print 'Add server group(s) '+",".join(wsmSvrGrp)+' to '+wsmSvr1+' and possibly '+wsmSvr2
    setServerGroups(wsmSvr1, wsmSvrGrp)
    if wsmSvr2Enabled == 'true': 
      setServerGroups(wsmSvr2, wsmSvrGrp)
  if wcpEnabled == 'true':
    print 'Add server group(s) '+",".join(wcpSvrGrp)+' to '+wcpSvr1+' and possibly '+wcpSvr2
    setServerGroups(wcpSvr1, wcpSvrGrp)
    if wcpSvr2Enabled == 'true': 
      setServerGroups(wcpSvr2, wcpSvrGrp)
  print('Finished ServerGroups.')

The groups are declared at the top:
# ServerGroup definitions
# See also: https://blogs.oracle.com/soa/soa-suite-12c%3a-topology-suggestions
#adminSvrGrp=["JRF-MAN-SVR"]
osbSvrOnlyGrp=["OSB-MGD-SVRS-ONLY"]
osbSvrCombGrp=["OSB-MGD-SVRS-COMBINED"]
soaSvrOnlyGrp=["SOA-MGD-SVRS-ONLY"]
soaSvrCombGrp=["SOA-MGD-SVRS"]
bamSvrOnlyGrp=["BAM12-MGD-SVRS-ONLY"]
bamSvrCombGrp=["BAM12-MGD-SVRS"]
wsmSvrGrp=["WSMPM-MAN-SVR", "JRF-MAN-SVR", "WSM-CACHE-SVR"]
wcpSvrGrp=["SPACES-MGD-SVRS","PRODUCER_APPS-MGD-SVRS","AS-MGD-SVRS","DISCUSSIONS-MGD-SVRS"]
wccSvrGrp=["UCM-MGD-SVR"]

For SOA, OSB and BAM you see that there is a default or "combined" server group, and a "server only" group. If wsmEnabeld is false, then the combined group is used and then the Policy Manager is added to the managed server or cluster. If it is true then the "only"-group is used.

Other Remarks

An earlier project I did failed when creating the domain. Somehow I had to run it twice to get the domain created. Somehow this is solved.

In my scripts I still use the 12.2.1.3 zips. But the scripts are quite easiliy adaptable for 12.2.1.4. I'll do that in the near future hopefully. But my current customer still uses this version. So, I went from here.

The project also adapts the nodemanager properties, creates a nodemanager linux service, and copies start stop scripts. However, I missed the bit of setting the listener port and type (plain or SSL) of the nodemanager in the Machine definition. So starting the domain needs a little bit of tweaking.

And for my project I need at 3 environments. So I need to downsize the database and the managed servers so that I can run it in 6GB, and can have 2 VMs on my 16GB laptop.

And I need to add a bridged network adapter to the Vagrant project, so that I can have the environments connect to each other.

Wednesday 13 May 2020

Vagrant Oracle Linux and the Vagrant user: use a password

Last year and earlier this year I have been struggling to create a new Vagrant box based on an installation of the Oracle Base box. I had some extra requirements, for instance having a GUI in my server to get to a proper desktop when it comes handy. I found in the end that it might be more convenient to create a base box by myself. I also tried using a ssh-key to have the vagrant user connect to the box to do the provisioning. But what I did, I get "Cannot allocate memory"-errors in any stage of the provisioning. For instance, when upgrading the guest additions:


Using a ssh-key is actually the recommended approach. Read my previous blog article on the matter for instructions on how to do it.

It struck me on why I couldn't have a Oracle Linux 7U7 box working as a base for new VMs. And why would I get these nasty memory allocation errors.
I upgraded from Vagrant 2.2.6  to 2.2.9, and VirtualBox from 6.1.4 to 6.1.6, but this wasn't quite related to these versions.

And just now I realized that the one thing I do differently with this box in stead of my OL7U5 box is the vagrant user ssh-key in stead of the password. So, I made sure that the vagrant user can logon using an ssh password. For instance by reviewing the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config and specifically the option PasswordAuthentication:
...
# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no
#PasswordAuthentication no
...
Make sure it's set to yes.


Then re packed the box

d:\Projects\vagrant>vagrant package --base OL7U7 --output  d:\Projects\vagrant\boxes\ol77GUIv1.1.box
==> OL7U7: Exporting VM...
==> OL7U7: Compressing package to: d:/Projects/vagrant/boxes/ol77GUIv1.1.box


And removed the old box:
d:\Projects\vagrant\ol77_gui>vagrant box list
ol75        (virtualbox, 0)
ol77        (virtualbox, 0)
ol77GUIv1.0 (virtualbox, 0)
ol77GUIv1.1 (virtualbox, 0)

d:\Projects\vagrant\ol77_gui>vagrant box remove ol77GUIv1.0
Removing box 'ol77GUIv1.0' (v0) with provider 'virtualbox'...

d:\Projects\vagrant\ol77_gui>vagrant box list
ol75        (virtualbox, 0)
ol77        (virtualbox, 0)
ol77GUIv1.1 (virtualbox, 0)

I found that it might be usefull to check if there are vagrant processes currently running. Since I got an exception that Vagrant said that the box was locked:
d:\Projects\vagrant\ol77_gui>vagrant global-status
id       name   provider state  directory
--------------------------------------------------------------------
There are no active Vagrant environments on this computer! Or,
you haven't destroyed and recreated Vagrant environments that were
started with an older version of Vagrant.

If your box is running it could say something like:
d:\Projects\vagrant\ol77_gui>vagrant  global-status
id       name   provider   state   directory
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
42cbd44  darwin virtualbox running d:/Projects/vagrant/ol77_gui

The above shows information about all known Vagrant environments
on this machine. This data is cached and may not be completely
up-to-date (use "vagrant global-status --prune" to prune invalid
entries). To interact with any of the machines, you can go to that
directory and run Vagrant, or you can use the ID directly with
Vagrant commands from any directory. For example:
"vagrant destroy 1a2b3c4d"

You could also do a prune of invalid entries:
d:\Projects\vagrant\ol77_gui>vagrant  global-status --prune
id       name   provider   state   directory
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
42cbd44  darwin virtualbox running d:/Projects/vagrant/ol77_gui
...

In the Vagrantfile I set the ssh username and password:
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  # The most common configuration options are documented and commented below.
  # For a complete reference, please see the online documentation at
  # https://docs.vagrantup.com.

  # Every Vagrant development environment requires a box. You can search for
  # boxes at https://vagrantcloud.com/search.
  config.vm.box = BOX_NAME
  config.vm.box_url=BOX_URL
  config.vm.define "darwin"
  config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |vb|
    vb.name = VM_NAME
    vb.gui = true
    vb.memory = VM_MEMORY
    vb.cpus = VM_CPUS
    # Set clipboard and drag&drop bidirectional
    vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--clipboard-mode", "bidirectional"]
    vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--draganddrop", "bidirectional"]
...
  end
  #config.ssh.username="darwin"
  config.ssh.username="vagrant"
  config.ssh.password="vagrant"

It is common to have the vagrant user's password be "vagrant". Lastly I "upped" my VM. And this all seemed to solve my memory allocation problems.

Apparently, we can't use the ssh-key to provision the box.